All because of a 5-1 defeat Thursday at the hands of the provincial rival Moose Jaw Warriors, the Saskatoon Blades fall further below the .500 mark and, in the process, fall further behind the Warriors in the Western Hockey League’s East Division standings.

“Any time we have a loss, I don’t think they rank very high,” said Blades head coach Dean Brockman.

“For us, we gave up that late goal in the first period and we just kind of seemed to lose it from there, but we just didn’t play with enough energy and enough desperation at times and, against a good team, you’re not going to win that way.”

Indeed, the visiting Warriors proved to be convincing Road Warriors at SaskTel Centre.

While the Blades failed to capitalize on their early chances, the Warriors simply did not.

“We got some timely scoring and that was the difference in the game,” said Moose Jaw head coach Tim Hunter.

“We’ve been playing poorly defensively in the lost little while — a 8-7 loss and 5-4 loss to Regina and Red Deer — and we’re trying to clamp down defensively and I think we did.

‘We had good goaltending when we needed it and we really limited Saskatoon’s scoring chances … We played well defensively. Saskatoon competes hard every night. They’re not going to go away — they’re well coached and well prepared.”

Luka Burzan and Noah Gregor both tallied twice to lead the Warriors on First Nations Night, which drew an announced crowd of 3,302.

Saskatoon falls to 9-12-1-0, while Moose Jaw improves to 12-4-4-0. The Warriors now have 28 points, nine more than the Blades with 19.

The Blades hit the road for a pair of crucial games Friday and Saturday at Westman Place in Brandon against the Wheaties.

Brandon is 10-7-3-0 and four points up on Saskatoon in the WHL’s East Division standings.
“They’re a good team,” Brockman said of the Wheat Kings. “For us, it’s getting on the bus tonight (Thursday) and getting there and getting set up. Really, we’ve just got to focus. Sometimes we’re better on the road. Just getting away from it and getting into a routine on the road is probably better for us.”

THE GOALS

Moose Jaw got on the board late in the first period when Luka Burzan’s one-timer finished off a two-on-one after a feed from Noah Gregor.

Burzan added his second of the night when his low shot found the corner at the 1:40 mark of the second frame. The Warriors made it 3-zip when Gregor ripped a shot to the top corner past the glove of Blades goalie Brock Hamm at the seven-minute mark.

Saskatoon answered 23 seconds later when captain Wyatt Sloboshan found the far corner with his shot from inside the faceoff circle.

Jayden Halbgewachs added a power-play goal for Moose Jaw at 11:39 to re-store a three-goal cushion.

Gregor, with a short-handed marker, tallied his second goal at 4:03 of the third.

SPECIAL TEAMS

The Blades went 0-for-4 on the power play. The Warriors were 1-for-2.

Saskatoon entered Thursday’s contest ranked No. 15 among 22 WHL teams on the power play with an 18.4 proficiency. The Blades came in at No. 19 with a 75.8 penalty-killing efficiency.

FIGHT CARD

In the first period, 5-foot-10, 188-pound Blades forward Cam Hausinger took on 5-foot-11, 182-pound Warriors forward Dakota Odgers, a native of Spy Hill.

Odgers is one of four Saskatchewan-born players on Moose Jaw’s roster. The others are Tanner Jeannot of Oxbow, Chantz Petruic of Moose Jaw and Jayden Halbgewachs of Emerald Park.

NHL-RANKED

Four members of the Warriors are rated in the NHL Central Scouting Bureau preliminary rankings. Forward Nikita Popugaev is listed as a B-ranked skater, while D-man Josh Brook plus goalies Zach Sawchenko and Brody Willms are C-listed.

Gregor was taken in the fourth round by San Jose in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft. Brett Howden, who was not in Moose Jaw’s lineup Thursday night, was a first-rounder by Tampa Bay. Dmitrii Zaitcev was taken in the seventh round by Washington.

THREE STARS

Noah Gregor — Two goals, including a short-hander, and an assist for a +3 rating

Luka Burzan — The 16-year-old rookie netted two goals and an assist for Moose Jaw while playing top-six minutes with Howden out of line-up

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